Newsmakers Week of Dec. 26, 2013

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Barbara Hirsh, the acting academic dean and director of the campus chaplaincy training program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, has been appointed director of the Center for Jewish Life and Learning of the Jewish Federation of Great­er Philadelphia. She will assume the post in mid-January.

The American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has announced a number of board and office appointments, including Philadelphia-area residents: Ernest Scheller, Jr., is vice president of the board of directors; Ira Ingerman has been elected treasurer; and Michele Levin has been voted as a director. Delaware Valley’s Scheller, an eminent regional business executive, has been a mover and shaker for the AABGU Mid-Atlantic region for decades. Philanthropist Ingerman and his wife, Eileen, belong to the university’s Ben-Gurion Society and have served for years as members of the board of AABGU’s Philadelphia chapter. He funds a scholarship at the school for Israeli students. Long active in leadership positions at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Levin has joined her husband, Robert, in roles as officers with AABGU’s Philadelphia chapter; both belong to the International Society of Founders.

Drexel University has become the second Pennsylvania college accorded access to the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive. Stephen D. Smith, exec director of the foundation, and Stephen A. Cozen, member of the foundation’s board of councilors as well as founder/chairman of the Philadelphia-headquartered law firm, Cozen O’Connor, made the announcement at the 20th anniversary benefit screening of Schindler’s List, held here at the Prince Theater. The first Pennsylvania college granted access was the U of P.

Dr. Robert Orsher, a veterinarian and founder/owner and co-hospital director of the Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center of Philadelphia and Levittown, has been accorded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association.

Real estate investor Jay I. Kislak and the Kislak Family Foundation have donated $5.5 million to the U of P’s Penn Libraries, which has debuted the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. A Wharton graduate and rare book aficionado, New Jersey native Kislak set into motion a tradition, becoming the first of what is now three generations of Penn grads in his family.

Former Philadelphian and U of P Law School graduate Steve Gottlieb, executive director of Atlanta’s Legal Aid, has been given the American Bar Association’s 2013 Charles H. Dorsey Jr. Award for legal aid services rendered.

Selma Roffman, former education director of two Solomon Schechter Day Schools, has been named interim Religious School director at Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, where she and her family are members.

Writer Ferida Wolff of Marlton, N.J., has two stories included in the newly released Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just Us Girls. Her work on “Our Friendship Is a Treasure” and “From Gym Friend to Real Friend” mark her 18th contribution to the Chicken Soup series.

Sadie Goldman, a resident of Sunrise Senior Living in Abington, celebrates her 100th birthday on Dec. 27 and will be feted with a party thrown by her family the following day.